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I reached for Sunday, my fingers itching to touch her, to close the distance between us. But she flinched away from me, the distrust in her eyes something I’d earned.
“Those heels look dangerous to navigate. Just trying to keep you from falling on your ass in front of the whole world.” I tried for what I hoped was a charming smile, but it felt more like a grimace. If I was ever going to repair the damage I’d done, I needed to start small. To prove myself.
I couldn’t see it behind her mask, but I was pretty sure she raised a brow at that. “Are you trying to imply I don’t know how to walk in these?”
“No. That’s not...” I was fucking this up already. “I just want to keep you safe, Sunday. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. But you won’t let me.”
She opened and closed her mouth, looking surprised by my honesty. Finally, she blew out a breath, pursing her lips for a moment as she studied me. “Look. Like it or not, we’re stuck with each other tonight. I’m willing to call a truce if you are.”
“Who says I don’t like it?”
“Oh, I don’t know, everything you’ve ever done?”
I closed my eyes, guilt washing over me at her words. “Look, Sunday. I can’t pretend that I’ve been anything more than an absolute douche when it comes to you. But you haven’t been entirely blameless in this either. I’ve been fucking in love with you since the day I saw you for the first time. It was out of my control, a goddamned lightning bolt straight to my soul, and you tore my fucking heart out in eight seconds flat. I was ready to give you everything just because you existed, but you rejected me before I had a chance. What the hell did you expect me to do? The only person I’d ever wanted didn’t want me. I didn’t know what to do with all that. I still don’t,” I added lamely, totally taken aback by my confession. I had never admitted, not even to myself, what my feelings for her meant. To do so now, on complete accident, threw me for a fucking loop.
“You aren’t in love with me. I don’t think you even know what love is.”
Raw from my admission, my heart laid bare for her, those words burned as she shoved them back in my face.
Again.
I couldn’t help it, I snarled, crowding her back against the wall. “Don’t you fucking dare tell me what I feel for you.” I grasped her wrist, holding it up against my heart. “Do you feel that? It beats for you. It has ever since I saw you and realized you were mine. Even when I wished it wouldn’t. I can’t get you out of my mind, no matter what I try. You’re under my skin, in my fucking veins, and I don’t know if you’re a poison slowly killing me or the cure for everything.”
The truth cost me. It turned my voice guttural and ragged with pain from her continued rejection of me and my heart. She was my mate. Fated for me by the moon goddess herself. So why wasn’t I enough for her?
Why couldn’t she just let me love her?
Her breaths came in sharp pants, eyes locked on mine, fire blazing behind them. I just needed one taste of those lips. Just one brush of her mouth on mine to show her what she was missing. Because there was no way I felt this ache alone.
Dipping my head down, I closed the distance between us, my forehead pressed to hers, lips a breath away. “If you don’t want this, tell me now. I’m laying my heart at your feet.”
Her breaths were ragged, her chest rising and falling. I fought a groan of frustration, my entire being desperate to just put us out of our misery and kiss her. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips, and if I were a weaker man, that would’ve been the moment I lost control. But then doubt flickered in her eyes.
No.
No.
No!
I’d been so close.
“No, Kingston. Not like this. I can’t.”
A feral growl escaped my chest. “You can.”
“You don’t understand.”
“You’re right. I don’t. How can you deny what your wolf wants so badly?”
“It’s my wolf, not me.”
I cupped her face gently, even though my need was so great I was shaking. “Youareyour wolf, Sunday.”
“If that was true, I’d be able to shift.”
Something shattered in me, and I forced myself back even though everything in me rebelled against the distance. “Then I guess we’ll just have to get you there. Because once you’re out of excuses Sunday, I’ll still be here. I’m not going anywhere. Not again. You can’t justdismissme. I am your mate. Period. And I will claim you.”
I snagged her hand and tugged her behind me out of the room, forcing myself not to look back at her because everything fucking hurt. Knowing I’d failed as a mate, that she wanted someone else, that he’dhadher, burned in my gut. But I wasn’t going to sit around and brood about it any longer. It was time for me to man up and make her see how wrong she’d been to not choose me.
Because one way or another, Sunday Fallon would absolutely fucking choose me.
